The presidents of Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia, all allies of
assassinated Congolese president Laurent Kabila, were on Sunday preparing to
meet to assess the situation. All three countries deployed troops to the DRC to
support Mr Kabila's presidency after rebels tried to oust him in 1998. News of
the meeting came as Mr Kabila's body lay in state in Lubumbashi, the capital in
his home province. The body was due to be flown to Kinshasa for Tuesday's
funeral. The body was returned to Lubumbashi from Harare where officials said
the wounded president was taken for treatment shortly after being shot three
times by one of his own long-serving bodyguards.

Details surrounding the assassination remained unclear but
government officials said Mr Kabila was shot while he sat in his office on
Tuesday while speaking with his private secretary. The assassin was shot dead by
other soldiers after the president's secretary raised the alarm. Joseph Kabila,
the dead president's son, was appointed president shortly after his father's
death but opposition groups have said they do not acknowledge him as the
nation's leader.

The Congolese government has indicated that it will return to
the negotiating table soon after the funeral in a bid to end a two-year old
civil war. On Thursday, the justice minister said the government would continue
to seek the withdrawal of Rwandan and Ugandan forces which had supported rebels
since 1998.

From The Star (SA), 21
January

We killed Kabila, says group of
Congo rebels

Paris - A group of DRC soldiers close to one of Laurent
Kabila's former allies, who disappeared in 1997, has claimed responsibility for
the late president's slaying. The claim, received in Paris on Sunday, was signed
by "the young militants of the National Council for Resistance and Democracy
(NCRD)". It was dated January 18 - the day the government said Kabila died from
wounds suffered in a shooting two days earlier - and was said to have been
written in the capital, Kinshasa. Kabila was shot in the presidential palace in
Kinshasa on Tuesday by a member of his presidential guard, then flown to Harare
where the government said he died on Thursday, but Kinshasa officials have not
identified his killer.

The statement said the NCRD had been formed under the orders of
General Ngandu Kisase, who fought alongside Kabila in the war that ousted the
dictator Mobutu Sese Seko from the then Zaire in 1997. Kisase disappeared later
that year in circumstances that were never clarified. "We proclaim total backing
for the heroic gesture of our brother in arms, Rachidi, who sacrificed himself
to end the days of the bloody monster Kabila," it said. The NCRD statement did
not identify "Rachidi".

From The Independent (UK), 22
January

How a hated dictator was betrayed by
one of his most trusted guards

Kinshasa - The assassin who shot President Laurent-Desire
Kabila at point blank range in his armchair last week raised no suspicions when
he entered the White House sitting room of the Marble Palace in Kinshasa. He
walked through the private entrance across the deep-pile red carpet towards the
president, who was sitting in a white armchair by the long coffee table. "The
man was a bodyguard. He knew the ways of the house. He would usually whisper the
name of the next visitor in the president's ear," said Emile Mota in the first
eyewitness account of the Congolese leader's murder last Tuesday.

The president, who had ruled the country for less than four
years after overthrowing the despotic Mobutu Sese Seko, was fatally wounded by
three bullets before loyal soldiers shot the bodyguard dead. In an interview
with The Independent, Mr Mota, 44, the presidential economics adviser, who
claims he was alone with Kabila, 62, when the shooting happened, describes in
vivid detail how the leader of one of the world's largest and potentially
wealthiest countries was shot at point blank range.

As the corpulent Kabila's white and gold coffin - too heavy for
the guard of honour to carry - arrived in Kinshasa from Lubumbashi in the south
and was put on display yesterday, Mr Mota said he hoped that speaking out would
help dispel harmful rumours. Officials in the government now run by Joseph
Kabila, 31, are desperately trying to maintain stability in the DRC) - a country
of 50 million people, 10 times the area of the UK and already at the centre of
the world's biggest war. Diplomatic sources did not dispute Mr Mota's account of
the assassination and said the scenario of a gunman acting alone was gaining
credence. But they questioned details of Mr Mota's rendition of events and
stressed that other versions are circulating.

"It was 1.45pm and we were completing our morning's work," said
the professor of mining economics from Lubumbashi, Kabila's home city, who has
been a deputy director in the president's office since last August. "There were
four of us appointed to the president's office and we worked on different days.
My days were Tuesdays and Saturdays. My job was to take notes and instructions
and to be with him in every meeting. That morning, at 9am, he received the
Health Minister, Mashako Mamba, who came with a health project. At 10am, the
North Korean charge d'affaires came to inform us that a ship was on its way with
food to Kinshasa - a gift from his government. The Korean delegation left at
around 12.30pm.

"From then on, we were on our own, myself and the head of
state. We discussed the Franco-African summit in Yaounde [Cameroon] and we drew
up a list of 27 people who were to travel there the next day, Wednesday." Mr
Mota, sitting on a sofa in the hotel suite where he lives, then flung open his
desk diary to reveal the list of names, written in red ink in the column for
Tuesday 16 January. It included two generals, Mr Mota and one other close
presidential aide, two ministers, plus Kabila's doctor, two servants, a cook, a
protocol officer, six bodyguards and the 10 crew members of the private jet.

"The president was very relaxed. He told me that [Libyan
President] Muammar Gaddafi had phoned him for guidance on whether to go to
Yaounde. He had advised him to do so because it would be an opportunity to meet
his African brother-presidents, as well as [French President] Jacques Chirac and
[UN secretary general] Kofi Annan. President Chirac wanted to thank Kabila for
his steps to broker peace in Burundi, including organising a meeting between
Pierre Buyoya [its President] and Jean Bosco Ndayikengurukiye [a leading Burundi
rebel leader]. France was in the DRC's debt and I was going to discuss a project
with the French to build a TGV [high-speed train] from Kinshasa to Lubumbashi by
2003," Mr Mota said.

"The president was dressed in a short-sleeved green safari
suit, as usual. He was sitting in an armchair near the door and I was on the
sofa in front of a very large low table. The bodyguard came in. I recognised
him. Rather than whisper in Kabila's ear, he very quickly pulled his revolver
out of his hip holster and shot him in the left side of the neck at very close
range. The president slumped back. As the killer backed away towards the door,
he fired two more shots, into Kabila's stomach. One of them went through him
into the right-hand arm of the chair and the other, after passing through
Kabila, went into the sofa where I was sitting. It could have hit me.

"The bodyguard started running and I followed him, shouting for
help. He was soon shot in the leg or foot but gave off two more shots before he
was shot down. I did not see that happening, I just heard the shots. By then, I
had gone back into the sitting room to see the president, who was unconscious,
and to call a doctor. I tried to help move him, to get him on to the helicopter
that was taking him to Ngaliena Clinic. My hands were covered in blood," Mr Mota
said.

He denied reports that the shooting was prompted by a row
between generals, possibly over the poor performance of the DRC and its allies -
Zimbabwe, Namibia and Angola - in their 30-month war against rebels backed by
Rwanda and Uganda in the east of the country. "There were no generals on
Tuesday." He also denied reports - supported by local residents - that gunfire
was heard from the palace compound for half an hour at about 4pm that day. Mr
Mota could not confirm the name of the assassin, but the Congolese press and the
Communication Ministry have named him as Rashidi Kasereka and have made much of
his birth in an eastern - now rebel-held - part of former Zaire.

"I understand that the man, who was in his twenties - probably
25 or 26 - had been with Kabila from the beginning," Mr Mota said. "He was
recruited by Kabila in the bush in Bukavu, in 1996, and was part of the forces
that marched into Kinshasa in May 1997. "I believe it was a premeditated attack
that had been planned for a long time," he said, though he has no idea of the
motive. All of Kabila's 20 bodyguards have been arrested as part of the murder
inquiry.

Diplomats who have heard Mr Mota's story said they believed
only about a dozen people knew the facts and that the economics adviser was
probably one of them. But they stressed that other theories were circulating and
that a wide range of motives exists. Foremost among them is, according to
diplomats and a number of analysts, that the DRC's ally, Angola, had grown
frustrated with Kabila's intransigence and unwillingness to negotiate peace. If
Angola arranged the assassination, it might well have been supported by
Zimbabwe, whose president, Robert Mugabe, wants to get out of the war. But
Joseph Kabila, installed by the government and expected to be sworn in after his
father's funeral in Kinshasa tomorrow, is not known to be a negotiator nor to be
particularly close to the Angolan leader, Eduardo Dos Santos. The Angolan
President, at a meeting yesterday in Luanda with Mr Mugabe and the Namibian
leader, Sam Nujoma, expressed support for Mr Kabila.

Mr Mota does not buy this scenario. Kabila was "on a peace
mission" to Yaounde where a deal was to have been signed with Burundi. Mr Mota
said that, through recent contacts with France and Gabon, Kabila had provided
considerable evidence that he wanted peace. A military source said that
disgruntlement within the army - including the bodyguards - was at an all-time
high due to unpaid salaries, poor living conditions and the recent execution by
Kabila of a respected general from the Kadogo tribe that had helped him to take
Kinshasa in 1997. Kabila is also believed to have briefly stripped all his
bodyguards of their weapons recently. The military source said that on the eve
of the assassination, or in the early hours of Tuesday, the Kokolo army camp in
Kinshasa had been surrounded by military police who said they were looking for
deserters.

Mr Mota does not wish to speculate on such matters, and argues
that he just wants to end the rumour-mongering and to offer his services to
Joseph Kabila "so that we can, together, perpetuate Kabila's vision for this
country. Kabila was misunderstood."

From IRIN (UN), 21
January

Luanda's Kinshasa
Policy

(This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the
United Nations)

Angola, a key regional power, is likely to play an influential
role with the new government in the neighbouring DRC following the death this
week of president Laurent-Desire Kabila, analysts told IRIN. "The government in
Congo is very weak without Kabila," analyst Claude Kabemba at South Africa's
Institute of Policy Studies said. "There is no way that (Angolan President Jose
Eduardo) dos Santos would allow somebody to take power in Kinshasa and he
doesn't control that person." Kabila's son, Major-General Joseph Kabila has been
appointed his successor, but it is not yet clear how much real power the
32-year-old wields.

Angola will be "part of the consideration and part of the
discussions" over the complexion and direction of the new government in
Kinshasa, Ben Jackson, director of the London-based Angola Peace Monitor told
IRIN. "I don't think Angola would like to see a military government - propping
up a military government would be difficult to sell internationally," he
added.

Angola's demonstrated willingness to deploy its battle-hardened
troops abroad has turned the oil-rich country into a regional power. Angola was
part of the anti-Mobutu Sese Seko alliance which brought Kabila to power in
1997. Across the river in war-wracked Congo-Brazzaville, Luanda also assisted
Denis Sassou-Nguesso regain the presidential palace. A year later it was
well-equipped Angolan troops that halted the Rwandan and Ugandan-backed rebel
advance on Kinshasa, saving Kabila's government. "Angola's influence is based on
its military capabilities," Kabemba said.

With moral among Zimbabwe troops reportedly low, and Namibian
soldiers numbering no more than 2,000, Angola is the key player in the
pro-Kinshasa alliance, analysts said. It has elite forces around Kinshasa, which
sources told IRIN were beefed up this week. Angolan troops are also in
Mbuji-Mayi, in Kasai Oriental, and the southern Katanga province. The clear aim
of Luanda's intervention in the DRC was to close the long-standing supply routes
used by the Angolan rebel movement UNITA. Frustration reportedly mounted over
Kabila's failure to keep up his end of the bargain, as UNITA re-established its
diamond trading operations. "Kabila was not interested in controlling UNITA's
movement. He was close to forgetting why dos Santos was in the DRC," Kabemba
noted. "Perhaps it was Kabila's arrogance that led to his death."

Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia were also reportedly increasingly
concerned over Kabila's obstruction of the 1999 Lusaka peace agreement,
condemning their forces to remain in the DRC. "It is reasonably widely-known
that Angola started to get a bit frustrated with Kabila's lack of progress with
Lusaka," Jackson said. "They would like to see a leadership more favourable to
Lusaka that would allow them to extricate themselves from the DRC." The new
Kinshasa government would also have to show far more commitment to clamping down
on UNITA activity along the long border it shares with Angola. "It's quite a
critical period at the moment. It's quite clear that UNITA is trying to
re-establish supply routes after its military reversals inside Angola. And if it
found a foothold in the chaos in the DRC, that would alarm Angola," Jackson
said.

Opinion from The Wall Street Journal
(US), 19 January

Avoid Clinton's African
Pitfalls

US President-elect George Bush remarked during his electoral
campaign that Africa was of little strategic importance to the U.S. Now, almost
on cue, the assassination of Laurent Kabila, the strongman of Congo, presents
Mr. Bush at his inaugural tomorrow with his first foreign crisis, threatening as
it does to plunge all of central Africa into a vortex of chaos. In devising a US
position on Congo, and a new Africa policy in general, Mr. Bush would benefit
from studying the lessons offered by the outgoing administration's African
blunders.

To be sure, the past year has seen successful democratic
transitions in Senegal and Ghana. But over all, President Bill Clinton's Africa
policy has been a disaster. The turmoil in Congo, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Ivory
Coast and Zimbabwe continue unabated. And in Kabila's Congo, six African
countries are involved in what is called Africa's "First World War."

It all started so hopefully. President Clinton paid more
attention to Africa than his predecessors, placing the continent on the front
burner and adopting a pro-active engagement. But it was destined for
disappointment because Mr. Clinton adopted this approach primarily as a sop to
his African-American constituency. Many of the failures with which his policies
met stemmed from this reality. In the past eight years, we've seen high-profile
tours to Africa by US government officials; First Lady Hillary Clinton and
daughter Chelsea visited February 1997; and in March 1998 President Clinton
himself visited the continent.

During his trip, Mr. Clinton painted a rosy portrait of Africa,
saying it was making "giant steps toward democracy and economic prosperity." He
hailed Presidents Kabila, Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, Paul Kagame of Rwanda,
Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia and Isaiah Afwerki of Eritrea as the "new leaders of
Africa." The president also spoke fondly of the "new African renaissance
sweeping the continent." He apparently liked it so much that he returned in
August. A series of new initiatives were launched during the Clinton years,
including the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), meant to expand
U.S.-Africa trade and investment, increase technical assistance and other good
things.

Unfortunately, these policies did not work, and the continent's
woes worsened. Gross domestic product seesawed during the decade, for example
growing at a respectable 5% rate in 1996, actually dropping 3.4% in 1997 and
rising again 4.7% in 1998. But even the years of growth were not sufficient,
given a population growth rate of 3%. Out of the list of African "economic
success stories" touted by the Clinton administration in 1994 (Gambia, Burkina
Faso, Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania and Zimbabwe) only two (Ghana and Burkina Faso)
were growing economically by the end of the 1990s.

Politically, Africa can count only 14 countries that can be
called democracies out of 54 countries. The Clinton years saw the implosion of
Somalia in 1993 ,Rwanda in 1994, Burundi in 1996, Zaire in 1996,
Congo-Brazzaville in 1997, and Sierra Leone in 1997. Worst off politically for
Mr. Clinton, the policy failed to impress those it was meant to please, Black
Americans. Randall Robinson, executive director of TransAfrica, one of the
groups that spearheaded the campaign against apartheid, has dismissed Mr.
Clinton's policies in Africa as a "disaster." Black American Congresswoman
Cynthia McKinney, Democrat from Georgia, has described Mr. Clinton's Africa
policy as "an abysmal failure." She asked in an interview this month with the
East African newspaper, "How can someone so friendly end up with such an
outrageous, atrocious, horrible policy that assists perpetrators of crimes
against humanity, inflicting damages on innocent African people?"

In order to craft a new approach to Africa that will have any
chance of success, the Bush administration must thus avoid three fundamental
errors committed by Mr. Clinton.

First, the Clinton administration relied almost exclusively on
black Americans for counsel in the formulation of his Africa policy. While
African-American legislators do mean well, and want to do the right thing by the
land of their ancestors, they lack an operational understanding of Africa's
current woes. President Clinton's appointment of Jesse Jackson as Special Envoy
to Africa was, for example, a huge blunder. That Mr. Jackson's actions severely
compromised the US in Africa can be seen from just a short list of events.

In June 1994, when Mr. Clinton sent the Rev. Jackson to help
defuse Nigeria's political crisis, pro-democracy forces refused to meet with him
due to of his support of the former military dictator, General Ibrahim
Babangida. Some Nigerians even threatened to stone Mr. Jackson if stepped foot
in Nigeria. Sierra Leonians, for their part, still have not forgiven Mr. Jackson
for brokering the 1999 Lome accords that awarded a ministerial position to Foday
Sankoh, the barbarous warlord whose band of savages, called the Revolutionary
United Front, chop off the limbs of their victims, including women and children.
Mr. Jackson then compounded his error by comparing the psychopathic Sankoh to
Nelson Mandela. The US has no shortage of native-born African exiles whose
understanding of the situation on the ground in Africa is deep, not gleaned
through the prism of US identity politics. Mr. Bush would benefit from
occasionally at least consulting these African expatriates.

Second, the Clinton administration's Africa policy was
"leader-centered." It sought out "saviors" with whom to develop close
relationships - always euphemistically called "partnerships" - and to help them
"transform society." The administration assumed rather naively that helping
these leaders and their governments would help the people. But most of these
African saviors turned out to be acrobats with dubious democratic credentials.
Mr. Bush would do better to develop contacts with African civil society.

Third, while the Clinton administration pursued the right
outcomes, it ignored the processes or institutions required to achieve them.
Thus while it said it wanted a democratic Africa based on the free-market
system, it did very little to lay its foundations. A market economy cannot be
established without secure property rights, the free flow of information, the
rule of law and mechanisms for contract enforcement. These processes or
foundations are missing in most African countries, which is why the free markets
and democracy the Clinton administration hoped to establish proved elusive. By
helping to develop these mechanisms, the new Bush administration can ensure that
the desired results will come in the mid-term future.

The new Bush administration, in sum, must fundamentally
depoliticize and deracialize its approach to Africa. Policy for a whole
continent cannot be based on the desire to placate an important American group.
The problems Africa faces today have little to do with the slave trade,
colonialism or racism, and a lot to do with bad leadership and governance. They
in turn have at their origin the establishment of defective economic and
political systems. The new approach must also place less emphasis on the
rhetoric of African leaders and more emphasis on institution building. Leaders
come and go, but institutions endure. Four institutions are critical: An
independent central bank, an independent judiciary, an independent and free
media, and neutral and professional armed forces.

These institutions are vital for the establishment of the
environment Africans need to craft solutions to their own problems. And these
institutions are established by civil society, not leaders. The Clinton
administration was misguided in its belief that it could micromanage African
affairs from Washington. The US can help, but it cannot supplant the initiative
and efforts Africans themselves must make to solve their own problems.

By George B.N. Ayittey. Mr. Ayittey, a native of Ghana, is an
associate professor of economics at American University and president of the
Free Africa Foundation, both in Washington, D.C. His new book, "Why Africa
Remains Poor," will be published by St. Martin's Press this summer.

Please note that distribution of the CFU farm invasions
and security report will be reduced from three times a week to twice a week,
with immediate effect. Reports will be collated and distributed on Mondays and
Thursdays. Special reports will be issued if there are major incidents in
between the routine distribution days.

Every attempt is made to
provide a comprehensive report of ongoing activities in relation to farm
invasions, but many incidents are unreported due to communications constraints,
fear of reprisals and a general weariness on the part of farmers.

NATIONAL REPORT IN BRIEF: * Mashonaland
Central - In a follow up investigation of stolen irrigation equipment
at Kingstone Devril, Centenary, police discovered equipment and criminals on the
farm. The police were apprehended by the criminals and held hostage until
Support Unit responded on Saturday and defused the situation, by which time the
stolen equipment had disappeared.Mutepatepa an invader was seen carrying a
303 rifle on Friday on Amanda farm.* Mashonaland East
-Marondera - on 17th January 2001 a police vehicle arrived on Mari Farm
at about 11.30pm and dropped off an invader. There were two uniformed police
and one in civilian clothing, who refused to provide ID numbers.*
Mashonaland West (North) - Karoi at Maghuje ZANU-PF Youth, waving placards have
blocked the Hurungwe Rural District Councillors in their offices. It is not
know why they are protesting. * Mashonaland West (South) -
Chegutu ZESA cable continues to be stolen in 20 tonne plus loads where fast
tracking has taken place.* Manicaland - Old Mutare - war
vets set up road block on Mountain Home Farm), over the weekend. Police were
called and when the manager went to speak to the police, he was attacked by war
vets. His own farm workers rescued the manager. On Sunday, another roadblock
was erected and a trained ox was stolen. A meeting is to be held with the DA,
local Chief and war vets this afternoon.* Masvingo -
Levanga Ranch, a large group of war vets accosted some game scouts and removed
their weapons, radios and uniforms. The group then met with the local CIO and
War Vet Leader of the area and the situation was neutralized. The CIO removed
the leader from the group and all weapons radios and uniforms returned to the
game scouts. Recently "conceded" farms in the Conservancy inundated. Large
number of cattle being mutilated with pangas and axes, approximately 15 reported
dead.

REGIONAL REPORTS:

No report was received
from Matabeleland and Midlands.

Mashonaland CentralCentenary
- In a follow up investigation of stolen irrigation equipment at
Kingstone Devri on Friday, police discovered the equipment and the criminals on
the farm. The police were apprehended by the criminals and held hostage until
Support Unit responded on Saturday and defused the situation, by which time the
stolen equipment had disappeared.Mvurwi - A confrontation
took place after invaders were apprehended for poaching at Hariana during which
the owner was instructed to move cattle away from invaders' crops, and that
invaders would take over the property as soon as this season's crops had been
reaped. Invaders at Pembi Falls claimed that 2 head of cattle from Forrester,
which had been penned because of sickness, had destroyed their maize crop. The
situation became confrontational and invaders demanded $75 000, fertilizer and
land prep as compensation for the damage. An admission of guilt was eventually
paid by the owner of Forrester and invaders have continued to make threats and
demands.Glendale - The following correction was made on the
last report: Chirobi was visited by the Parliamentary Lands Committee on a
fact-finding tour to establish the impact of farm invasions on the economy.
Invaders vandalised 14 vacant houses at Chirobi on Friday and to date there has
been no response by police to the report made.Mutepatepa -
An invader was seen carrying a 303 rifle at Amanda on Friday. Numbers increased
on the farm on Sunday with ploughing ongoing. 170 head of cattle were driven
onto Minto on Saturday.Mazowe / Concession - Invaders have
been demanding accommodation at Maryvale and police have failed to respond to
the situation.

Mashonaland East Beatrice -
Invaders returned to Endslensdeale) with a tractor and the police were going to
investigate. Bromley / Ruwa / Enterprise - Nothing to
report. Harare South - Farm labour on Mitsike Farm reported
a ZANU PF twin cab driving around the farm but they came and went with no
interference. Marondera - On 17th January 2001 a police
vehicle arrived (ZRP 814D) on Mari Farm at about 11:30 p.m. and dropped off an
invader. There were two uniformed police and one in civilian clothing who
refused to provide ID or numbers. Another threatening letter arrived from the
invaders for the foreman of Wenimbe Farm vowing that he and his "bosses" would
definitely be in trouble " if they forced an ex - employees wife to vacate her
home. (The note was delivered two weeks after being written by which time the
ex - employee and his wife had already vacated the farm a month earlier).
Invaders ploughed up the front lawn of a house on Elmswood that is presently
being rented. 4 oxen arrived to plough on a section of Uitkyk but leftsoon
after arriving. Invaders returned to Ponderosa on Friday.
Marondera North - Please correct last Sitrep as follows:
On Saturday (13th January) a blue CIO vehicle arrived on Rapids with Police Com
Mbanga driving, with DA in front, and a war vet in the back, they wanted to know
why cattle had eaten the squatters maize. They were informed that the squatters
took their tractors in to plough, and left the gate open and thecattle went
in and ate the maize. It was clear that no compensation would be paid. The war
vet leader Chop Chop, was very threatening and told the farmer, in front of the
police that he would come and kill him. On 18th January three DDF Tractors
arrived and started ploughing, and the drivers were attempting to move into one
of the workers houses. Four farm invadersarrived on Cambridge, with the DA
and started causing trouble. The assistant DA and police went to the farm on
Saturday with unsatisfactory results. A group of individuals from the
Municipality of Marondera arrived on Dorset Farm, led by Ms Mawema wanting to
look over the farm and said that they would come back later. About 1 kilometre
of fencing wire was stolen on Chipunga There is increased invaders activity on
Nyagambe. Macheke / Virginia - A worker was assaulted on
Bimi Farm. The DA arrived on Royal Visit, and instructed that all invaders
move off the farm. When they protested that they had planted monkey nuts the DA
advised that a youth plus Nyamwiri could stay until the monkey nuts were reaped
but then they too must leave the farm. The owner of Nyagadzi Farm took down
the fence around his seedbed site, as the invaders had planted maize. The
invaders were upset because the cattle were now going to come in and eat the
maize. The police attended and resolved the problem. Six more cattle have
been moved onto Nyadema. The huts had dried fishing nets outside them so the
police were called in and one of the invaders admitted that he had been poaching
in the dam. There was a report of wire theft from Koodoo Range. The farmer
paints his wire, and some burnt wire was found in the communal area, but there
was enough paint to identify it. The police have been informed.Three
individuals were arrested on Chikumbakwe for fish poaching. Wedza
- A fence was cut and cattle let onto the main road on Wednesday from
Bristol farm. A delegation comprising of the Assistant DA, with armed police,
plus five vehicles and farm invaders arrived on Dudley Estate. The invaders
informed the owner that they had come to resettle 19 families on his farm and he
was to start planting for them the next day. The 19families are yet to
arrive. Stock theft and a cow slaughtered on Lynton Farm Squatters on Fels
threatened the guard at the irrigation motor. A few extra guards were placed
there but the squatters never returned. On Chakadenga there are 8 new houses
being constructed.

Mashonaland West (North) Ayshire
- war vet Kangachepe is at Marasha Farm trying to take over the labour
officers portfolio - under control.Karoi - at Magunje ZANU
PF Youth, waving placards, have blocked the Hurungwe Rural District Councillors
into their offices. It is not known why they are demonstrating and the offices
cannot be reached by telephone. General - All other areas
quiet.

Mashonaland West (South) Norton - Two
lorries and twelve other vehicles went from next to Dorton farm, and the
occupants proceeded to peg etcetera on Emojeni and Shingwiri
Chakari - On Newbiggin Farm occupiers have stolen feeding
tyres and set up a sandal making enterprise. Chegutu -
ZESA cable continues to be stolen in 20 tonne plus loads where fast tracking has
taken place.

ManicalandOld Mutare - war vets set up
roadblock on Mountain Home Farm over the weekend. Police were called and when
the manager went to speak to the police, he was attacked by war vets. His own
farm workers rescued the manager. On Sunday, another roadblock was erected and
a trained ox was stolen. They are having a meeting with the DA, local Chief and
war vetsthis afternoon.Chipinge - Dunraven Farm had a
cow poisoned over the weekend.General - rest of area -
ongoing, cattle rustling, stealing a lot of fencing and
harassment.

Masvingo Masvingo East and Central -
Lothian Farm - war vet Captain Zimuto is back on this property and is re
arranging all the farm fences. He has told owner that he has had his three
months notice period to remove all his belongings and questioned why he was
still on the property. Mwenezi - Sossonye Ranch- 2 donkeys
belonging to squatters died on the above property. Veterinary Department had no
transport to check for Anthrax.Huge increase in number of illegal squatters.
Save Conservancy - Deforestation continues in the
Conservancy.

General influx of illegal squatters on
the western side of the Conservancy. Between the 15th and the 18th January
someone has been poaching with a weapon on the South West of the Turgwe River.
Levanga Ranch , a large group of war vets accosted some game scouts and removed
their weapons, radios and uniforms. The group then met with the local CIO and
War Vet Leader of the area and the situation was neutralized. The CIO removed
the leader from the group and all weapons radios and uniforms returned to the
game scouts. Recently "conceded" farms in the Conservancy inundated.

Gutu / Chatsworth -
Continued deforestation in this area. Land Committee continues to peg out
plots. Report of squatter who illegally moved 12 head of cattle, 5
subsequently died from Theirleriosis.

Chiredzi - Wasarasara
Ranch, faction fighting broke out at farm store after two different vehicles
arrived one after the other issuing different instructions. One person was
believed to be knocked unconscious. 2 cows, a calf and a bull hamstrung and on
neighbours property (Oscro Ranch) another 3 cows hamstrung. Owner has had to
shoot three of the cattle. Alstar Haven,new influx of illegal squatters on
this property. Samba Ranch, new influx of illegal squatters who harassed game
guards on the property. Lots of illegal fishing taking place. Bangala Ranch,
22 fish poachers caught on this property. 12 of them taken to Police and the
other 10 were released by an individual threatening everyone with a pipe.
Although fish poachers have been arrested, the poachers continue to fish in the
dam. Huge increase in number of illegal squatters. Eureka Ranch), new influx
of squatters.

General - There is
no reaction from the Police concerning the above reports.Lots of illegal
movement of cattle continues. Continued deforestation. Influx of new
squatters on most properties. Large number of cattle being mutilated with pangas
and axes, approximately 15 reported dead. Many other cases not being reported as
it is "out of the ordinary". Police only responding to stock theft and maiming
in various degrees. Reports of Cane theft increasing. Report of a letter from
Ministry of Lands telling peopleto get off farms. Confirmed by the DAs and
PA. MPs forcing people to invade in large numbers.

CHIEF Justice Anthony
Gubbay this week publicly reprimanded Judge President Godfrey Chidyausiku over
his "political attack" on the head of Zimbabwe’s judiciary and said the judge’s
comments overstepped his authority and undermined the rule of
law.

Describing Justice
Chidyausiku’s criticism as astonishing, unwarranted and essentially a political
attack, Justice Gubbay said he had not invoked Section 87 (3) of the
constitution under which he would have advised President Robert Mugabe to
institute an inquiry into the removal of Justice Chidyausiku from the bench.

But Justice Gubbay, who is the head of the country’s judiciary, strongly
warned Justice Chidyausiku to desist from making any similar attacks in the
future.

The chief justice was responding to comments by Justice
Chidyausiku earlier this month criticising Justice Gubbay and the Supreme Court
over one of their rulings on the government’s land reform programme.

"In
the tense situation prevailing in Zimbabwe at present, the judge president
should avoid making inflammatory statements. This is not the first occasion on
which he has done so. He is required to refrain in future from such conduct,"
said Justice Gubbay, noting that the full bench of the Supreme Court backed his
decision to reprimand the High Court judge.

Opening the High Court in
Bulawayo, Justice Chidyausiku hit out at his boss, accusing him of having
sparked the controversy between the judiciary and the executive over the land
reform plan in a speech made by Justice Gubbay in 1991.

In that speech,
Justice Gubbay criticised a proposal by the government to amend Section 16 of
the constitution by denying access to the courts of commercial farmers wishing
to challenge the amount of compensation paid by the government for land it is
seizing.

Justice Chidyausiku char-ged that Justice Gubbay’s speech not
only openly invited farmers to sue the government but that the speech assured
the farmers of victory in the courts.

As a result of Justice Gubbay’s
speech, the government had now chosen to follow the political route and to
ignore court rulings on the land issue, Justice Chidyausiku said.

In the
same speech, the judge president also criticised the Supreme Court for having
nullified a ruling made by himself last year in which he had sought to suspend
an earlier Supreme Court order requiring the government to remove independence
war veterans from farms that they are occupying illegally.

In his
statement yesterday, Justice Gubbay dismissed Justice Chidyausiku’s charge that
he had invited farmers to the courts as "frankly ridiculous". He pointed out
that the government had, in fact, accepted the consent judgments on the removal
of the veterans from the farms because "the state representatives and their
legal advisers appreciated that their position was legally indefensible".

Justice Gubbay said contrary to Justice Chidyausiku’s claims, the only
court case in which the issue of compensation for farms seized by the state had
been dealt with by the courts was, in fact, won by the state.

The other
two orders granted on the issue of land, one by the High Court and the other by
the Supreme Court, were in fact consent orders that state lawyers had agreed to.

Besides, the two orders did not deal with the issue of compensation but
with the occupation of farms which had been done in contravention of the Land
Acquisition Act passed by the government itself, Justice Gubbay noted.

"To claim judgments are now being awarded as promised is simply untrue
and offensive," the chief justice said.

Dismissing Chidyausiku’s
complaint on the Supreme Court’s nullification of his order staying the
execution of an earlier ruling by the higher court, Justice Gubbay said: "The
judge president, in his erroneous judgment, overstepped his authority in
purporting to suspend the order of a court superior to his own.

"The
hierarchy of the courts is understood by the simplest layman and thus the
Supreme Court has the power and authority to overturn a decision by a judge of
the High Court.

"The ethics and traditions of the legal profession
demand that a judicial officer whose judgment is overturned by a higher court
should not appeal to the public to support his view.

"The reason is
obvious. He is seeking to undermine the very legal system of which he is part.
If he has any complaint, it should be conveyed in private to the members of the
court which overruled his decision."

He said of Justice Chidyausiku’s
conduct: "After anxious consideration, I am of the view that the judge
president’s conduct does not yet warrant recourse to Section 87 (3) of the
Constitution of Zimbabwe - that is advice to His Excellency the President that
his removal from office ought to be investigated.

"Nonetheless, it is
deserving of a severe reprimand. I have accordingly issued such a reprimand and
hereby make it public. My colleagues on the Supreme Court bench support me fully
in this statement."

Letters to the editor:

A deadly tourism plan

Tongai
Kwirihiwiri, Harare. 1/17/01 7:38:14 PM (GMT
+2)

EDITOR — Probably the
strangest thing within ZANU PF today is the party’s apparent idea that all
whites are brain-dead or somehow senseless.

I am saying this in reference to
the recently launched tourism recovery plan — launched by the same person who
destroyed tourism in Zimbabwe, President Robert Mugabe.

Recently at the
ZANU PF congress, Mugabe was heard to give orders to his supporters that they
should strike terror in the hearts of whites.

The President’s message is
very clear and we don’t need a commentary from a newspaper to realise that under
Mugabe’s tourism recovery plan, all whites are marked for death.

Tell me this isn’t true

Chemedza,
Harare. 1/17/01 7:39:16 PM (GMT
+2)

EDITOR — This letter is
addressed to Finance Minister Simba
Makoni.

Minister, please tell me
the new tax regime is not correct.

Please tell me that I, who earns very
little, will not be taxed 40 percent.

Please tell me that it is not true
that I shall be taking less money home from this month on.

Please
clarify the new tax system. How can you tax me the same as someone who is
earning $75 000 per month? It is not fair.

I will be taking home about
$3 000 less. How am I to survive?

You guys have no heart — there is a
big hole where your hearts are supposed to be.

I already earn very
little and now you want to take it all.

I hope you are satisfied, having
reduced me to a beggar.

If suggestions that the new taxes are going to
lower some people’s salaries are true, brace yourself, Makoni, for a major
outcry or mass action when people get their pay-slips this coming month-end.

How can you do this to us? I am sorely disappointed in
you.

Forget ZANU PF

Stephen
Mambowa, Gweru. 1/17/01 7:34:21 PM (GMT
+2)

EDITOR — I am surprised
and frustrated by the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA)’s repeated calls
for a new constitution again from the present government.

Some people never learn. The ZANU
PF government has been very stubborn and arrogant on this issue until April 1999
when its leader Robert Mugabe hijacked the idea of constitutional reform from
the NCA and formed the so-called Constitutional Commission.

The
commission unsuccessfully went on to peddle a ZANU PF draft constitution after
it had thrown away the needs of the people of this country.

Millions of
taxpayers’ money went into the pockets of ZANU PF cronies in this fiasco.

Now we have the NCA calling the same ZANU PF government to institute
constitutional reform. Please give us a break!

What the NCA should do
now, as we face a crucial presidential election next year, is to move into
farming and rural communities to do some voter education and teach them about
electoral rights.

The NCA and other civic groups should start to work
with the Movement for Democratic Change and forget about the ZANU PF government.

A truly people-driven constitutional reform exercise will only happen
without Mugabe.

HARARE, January 21 (Xinhuanet) -- The Zimbabwean government is
launching a commercial farm settlement scheme which is aimed at
promoting the entry of indigenous people into commercial farming. The government is inviting interested persons willing to take
up the small, medium and large scale commercial farms under the
scheme, said Zimbabwean Ministry of Lands, Agriculture and Rural
Resettlement in a statement on Sunday. According to the ministry, applicants to the scheme must be 21
years old and above and must demonstrate ability to command funds
in the form of cash or fixed assets to carry out the intended
agricultural activities. The scheme, which is being implemented parallel to the fast
track land resettlement program, is different from the latter
which seeks to resettle landless peasants and de-congest communal
areas. Under the fast track program, the government is allocating
communal farmers land whereas under the commercial farm settlement
scheme, the intention is for the beneficiaries to enter commercial
farming and own the farms.

Zimbabwe veterans threaten to seize companies

January 20, 2001Web posted at: 9:01 AM EST (1401
GMT)

HARARE, Zimbabwe (Reuters) -- Zimbabwe independence war veterans, who have
invaded hundreds of white-owned farms in the past year, will take over companies
that shut down during any opposition-organized protest, their leader said on
Saturday.

"That is our position and it's not just a threat," Chenjerai Hunzvi, leader
of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans, told Reuters when asked to
confirm a newspaper report.

"We will do it. Just wait and see, and you will see this is not a joke,"
Hunzvi added.

Zimbabwe's private Daily News quoted Hunzvi as saying on Friday that veterans
would break into and take charge of any company that closed during protests
called by the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

The MDC has promised to organize mass action -- including strikes and street
marches -- against President Robert Mugabe's government and violence by his
ruling ZANU-PF party supporters.

"We are already setting up committees to move around the industrial areas. If
we find any companies locked, we will break in and take them over," Hunzvi was
quoted as saying.

"We will take them just as we have done with the commercial farms," he added.

ZANU-PF, which has dominated Zimbabwe's politics since independence from
Britain in 1980, narrowly beat off a stiff challenge in June parliamentary
elections from the MDC, which won an unprecedented 57 out of 120 elected seats.

The June poll followed five months of political violence in which at least 31
people -- mainly MDC supporters -- were killed. These included five farmers
killed in violence linked to the invasion of white-owned farms since February by
war veterans backing Mugabe's plans to seize the farms for blacks.

The MDC lost one of its seats this month in a violence- ridden by-election in
Zimbabwe's southern Bikita district.

The ruling party has said in the past that white-owned businesses have helped
protests and strikes organized by the MDC or its union allies by locking out
workers.

OPPOSITION SAYS MASS ACTION TO GO AHEAD

MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai denounced Hunzvi's threats as highly
irresponsible, and another blow against the rule of law.

"Peaceful protests are protected by law and we are not going to abandon them
because of these threats," he said, declining to say when the MDC will call its
mass action.

An official with the country's main business body, the Confederation of
Zimbabwe Industries, called Hunzvi's comments disturbing.

"I don't think company owners or managers have ever closed their enterprises
willingly, because they want to make money," he said.

"They have closed them when the circumstances are beyond their control. These
threats are disturbing because they don't seem to recognize this basic fact," he
added.